Form analyst Trent Orwin previews his best selections for Gloucester Park on Friday night.

Race 2 (5:52pm local/7:52pm AEST) – MS PACE – 2130m

Abraxas Blues has won three of his past four starts and despite the rise in class he looks a strong contender. He moves into barrier three with the scratching of All The Torque and could be dangerous late if he can settle better than midfield in the moving line with cover.

He won’t win by a big margin if he is able to reel in Stroganoff who will lead from barrier one but shouldn’t be too far away in this race unless he gets caught in the breeze which will be disastrous for his chances.

Despite being $8.50, Abraxas Blues is fairly short at $2.40 to place so I recommend backing win only as he could definitely miss a place.

We are following Kim Prentice tonight with Abraxas Blues in Race 2 and his stable star Soho Tribeca in Race 5.

The four-year-old entire was second in the Fremantle Cup (2536m) and third in the WA Pacing Cup (2936m) won by Chicago Bull. That form is a class above this field and Soho Tribeca won the Golden Nugget Championship (2536m) against a couple of his rivals tonight.

He is returning from a spell but has shown that he is one of the state’s best pacers and he would have had strong claims in the free for all from any barrier.

I am going to tip a roughie in this event in the form of Out Back Joe who has been airborne. He meets a very strong line up and this may not be the right race but I can’t ignore his past couple of starts.

At his past three starts he has been beaten 6.3m by Natural Disaster, 5.7m by Naughty Maravu and 3.2m by Jambiani. Add the fact that he defeated Soho Wall Street five starts ago and the $31/$6.90 is appealing.

He may drift out further so anything more would be nice and he definitely has knockout claims in the race.

A difficult race to assess but Grinning Fear looks backable odds from barrier three. He has some chance of finding the lead which would help his cause, otherwise he could get a nice run close to the speed.

We support Kim Prentice again, although he doesn’t train this one, as he drives for Sarah Dacey.

Grinning Fear was runner up at Pinjarra and had tested Talkerup three starts ago at that same venue. Even his effort from the breeze two starts ago was admirable and he should run well.